ESSEC Diaries: Cultural Immersion in Singapore with Olivia Gunawan

Olivia, an Indonesian student studying business administration in Singapore, shares her experiences of cultural immersion. She mentions that Singapore is a modern and advanced country, but not too different from her home country. The strict rules, like waiting for the sign to turn green before crossing the road, actually make things easier and more efficient. Olivia engages with the local culture by visiting hawker centers, trying Singaporean specialties, and attending festivals like the lion dance. She enjoys the multicultural environment at her university, which has helped her develop a more flexible and open-minded mindset. Living in Singapore has made her more independent and improved her work ethic. Overall, Olivia has had a positive experience of cultural immersion in Singapore. Hello and welcome to ESSEC Diaries Student Journeys in Singapore. I'm your host, Joe Escobedo, and on today's episode, we'll be talking about cultural immersion in Singapore. Joining us today is Olivia, who will be sharing her experiences. Olivia, thanks so much for being on the podcast. Hi, Joe. Thank you so much for inviting me here. Absolutely. Now, Olivia, could you briefly introduce yourself? Sure. So, hi, everyone. I'm Olivia. I'm from Indonesia, so neighboring country from Singapore. And I'm currently studying business administration in ESSEC, and I'm still a year one student, so still a long way to go, but I'm excited to be here. Wonderful. And was this your first time coming to Singapore? Oh, for study, yes, but I've been here a few times just for holiday and to meet up with some friends that live here. What was your first experience when you came during holidays? When I went here for the holidays, my experience in general was obviously from a tourist perspective. It was definitely a very modern country, because if you compare it to my home country, it's very different in terms of everything here is so advanced. Even the MRT itself just shocked me, but at the same time, it's not too far from home. I didn't have that much of a culture shock because the food-wise, it's very similar to a lot of Asian dishes, and even the people-wise, they're very nice, and yes, sometimes they can be more strict with their rules, but I never personally felt like that has impacted me personally. It's actually impacted me positively because I'm more punctual and everything. So yeah, that was my first, I guess, impression of Singapore, and I definitely love it here. Okay, so you mentioned punctuality. Were there any other differences in terms of culture that were new to you? Back in my home, the rules here, the rules there were not as strict, as in when people can just cross the road whenever, and here it's like, you need to really wait for the sign to turn green. And yeah, maybe there's sometimes people are scared of Singapore because of the strict rules, but I think all these rules are there for a reason, and they actually make things easier for you, and it gets you out of trouble. And I guess, just going back to how fast-paced everything is, like, when you order food or order anything, and I think that can be hard on some people sometimes, just because sometimes you like to take things slow, you like to, okay, just let me give you an example, ordering food, when you are like, you want to choose which food that you want to pick, sometimes we like to take our time, and Singaporeans, you gotta know already from the start, and just in that sense, I think it can be hard for some people to adapt to, but again, I see it as a positive thing, I think, because it helps you just become more productive in a way. Yes, I think Singapore is definitely known for its productivity and efficiency, which I think many of us have picked on since living here, so that's great to hear. Definitely. How have you engaged with the local culture, the local people outside of the classroom? Sure, I'm a very big foodie, so obviously the first thing that I look out for is a lot of hawker centers, which is essentially the food courts, and they are basically, if you're a student, this is basically your second home, because they sell affordable, good, rich cuisine, and obviously as a student, you would want the best of both worlds, not only delicious food, but also affordable food, and I think that in itself, just visiting a lot of hawker centers is already considered engaging the local culture, because you can see them everywhere, you have the high-end hawker centers, you have the ones for the neighborhood ones, so I think I've been going to a lot of food courts and hawker centers, and I can really feel like what it's like to be a Singaporean. Other than that, I go to a lot of tourist places, and I would also consider that engaging into the culture, but most interestingly, it's actually nearby where I live, there's a lot of lion dance festivals, sometimes I wake up to the lion dances, the music, and sometimes I've seen them past my street, and even though it's a very short moment, I only see the lion dances for a while, I think that's very, it's just very heartwarming to see everyone gather around the lion dances, and I think it's tradition here to embrace the more Chinese culture side of Singapore, so I think that way, I've definitely known my fair share of the culture here. Awesome, great to hear that, now I want to talk a little bit more about the cultural side of events here in a little bit, but going back to food, obviously there's quite a lot of Indonesian food, particularly at the hawker centers, do you find yourself eating a lot of Indonesian food, or do you find yourself eating local, or what's the mix like? I actually don't eat Indonesian food at all, which is crazy because you see a lot of them, but I think there are so many other cuisines that you have to try that's like Singaporean specialty, let me give some examples maybe, because I think everyone here needs to try them, so my number one favorite is fishball noodles, it's essentially the name, it's fishball noodles, it's noodles with fishballs, but it's so good, and I think the best thing about Singapore is how most dishes have, you can choose between dry and soup, obviously other staple foods include chicken rice, right, chicken rice is everywhere, like my, I get one that not a lot of people actually like, or as in, but a lot of my friends, they never heard of it, it's actually this like pork soup called bak kut teh, it's not halal, but obviously for my friends who can eat it, you have to try it, it's so good, it's so good, yeah, just a shout out to my favorite drink also, bandung, everyone here has to try bandung. You're making me hungry just talking about it, go back to what you were saying earlier about the local festivals, you talked about the lion dance that takes place near your house, are there any other festivals or cultural events that you've seen or been part of since you've been in Singapore? I recently went to this Indian New Year's festival, quote unquote New Year's, it was in the Indian Heritage Center, and we were exposed to different types of Indian cuisine, and more on like how their cuisine is made, how the dishes are made in India, and also how to eat them, and this is interesting, Chinese, Indian, Malay, and Malay is like very similar to Indo, so I know my fair share of Malay, I'm also half Chinese, so I also know my half fair Chinese culture, but Indian culture, I don't know anything about it, so that experience definitely helped me, gave me new interesting insights on it, and yeah, it was very fun, everything was just fun, I just tried a bunch of food, yeah. Yeah, I think that brings up a very good point, is that Singapore is a melting pot of different ethnicities and cultures, so you get to experience all these different cultures at one time during your time here, so I think it's definitely an advantage. It sounds like you've learned a lot about the local culture, how has that really helped impact your educational experience? Firstly, just like going back to what I said about how everything here is very fast, I think that definitely made me more independent, especially since this is my first time living abroad, and when it comes to academics, it's not a direct impact in my opinion, but I think it just helps build a better work ethic when you're able to be punctual in that sense. Another way is, going back to the point that you mentioned, Jo, about how there's so many cultures in Singapore, just in Essex specifically, I'm also exposed to more cultures, because there's so many people, there's people from France, from Russia, from China, from everywhere, so my experience adopting myself to the culture of Singapore definitely helped me with group works, which is a very big thing in Essex, there's group works every time, every class. I think I'm more flexible now, I'm more flexible when it comes to working with people that don't have similar cultural backgrounds as me, and yeah, it was hard at first, I remember my first group project, and I did not, I was not able to understand why some people, they're very straightforward when they say something, while in Asian cultures, you don't want to make them feel bad, but because every day in Singapore, I'm able to see different people interact, I even interact with different people from different ethnicities, that definitely helped with my group work ethic, so that's the biggest plus point, I think, in living in Singapore. I think it's a very good point, we talked about it on a different episode, of working in, even your group work, working in a very multicultural environment, it's going to be super helpful whenever you graduate, you, for example, work in a multinational, or you work overseas, it sounds like it's definitely broadening your horizon, and I'm curious, how has been, you've been living in Singapore for a year, how has that changed your mindset? It's just now, I'm definitely more open-minded to, specifically like non-Asian cultures, Singapore is an Asian culture, but definitely, even within Malay, and Malaysian culture and Indonesian culture itself is also very different, and because I was able to adapt to that, I was able to be more open-minded to outside cultures, non-Asian cultures, even in Singapore, you have people not from Singapore, and an example, in class, I have to work with foreigners, my friends from outside of Asia, and I think that definitely helped make me more flexible in a way, that's the best way I would explain it. Now I'm more open-minded, when my friends from other cultures, they bring up their opinions about something, and it's not really what I'm accustomed to, then I'm just like, okay, it's fine, there's nothing wrong with people's culture, it's just that it's different, and I think living in Singapore definitely helped me with that. It definitely sounds like it, and I'm curious, you mentioned one of the challenges you had was adapting to group work, working with different people from different parts of the world, were there any other challenges you faced when coming down to Singapore, either inside or outside the classroom? This might not apply to everyone, but sometimes the language might be an issue, just because I don't know Chinese, and a lot of people, they talk to me, they think I'm Chinese, and so they talk to me in Chinese, and there's nothing wrong with that, because when they know that I don't speak Chinese, they instantly speak in English, and I think that's a plus point in Singapore, everyone here, majority, they speak English, so even if you don't know Malay, or Hindi, or Chinese, they'll speak to you in English, so you'll be fine, but I think in some cases, for me, when I have to meet people, they, because there's such a big Chinese population here, sometimes it's more of a me thing, as in I feel sad that I can't speak the language, but at the end of the day, everyone here speaks English, so it's just more of a me thing, and it's something that I personally want to work on, so yeah, nothing other than that, I think it's all good. Yeah, I can definitely relate to that, so I did my Masters in China, and so I didn't speak a word of Mandarin when I went there, so they were a little bit more forgiving with me, but yeah, I can understand how initially not learning the language, in that case, was the primary one, and in this case, once again, in Singapore, many people speak English, so you don't necessarily have to speak Mandarin, it's helpful, it's good to learn, but I think, yeah, you can get away with speaking English here. Yeah, don't, funny story, actually was, I had a friend who's from Singapore, and when we were in Indo, I told them that, oh yeah, I'm going to Singapore, and this dude just roasted me for not being able to speak Chinese, he was like, oh, you're not going to survive there, everyone speaks Chinese, bro, like why are you even going to Singapore, and that scared me, you know, that scared me, because I was like, oh, how am I going to live there, but then the reality is so different, because one, is everyone here speaks English, and two, actually, most of the times, I hear more Malay people around me, and I'm able to understand that more than Chinese, so for everyone listening, don't be scared if you can't speak Chinese, like what Joe said, it's definitely helpful, but it's not going to be the end of you if you can't speak it, so, yeah. It's good to hear, now, many of the people watching and listening will be our future batch of ESSEC students, and I'm curious, what advice would you give to those upcoming students to really get the most out of the Singapore culture? So, I guess my biggest tip is, okay, one is, when it comes to facing the culture itself, is don't be afraid to make mistakes, as in don't take it personally, if you're not able to understand the culture directly, that's fine, because even as a foreigner, like, it's normal, you know, in other countries, if the positions were switched, and someone came to your country, and they didn't understand, like, the underlying cultures of your country, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, it's just that you have to learn from it. So, for example, because I remember just a bit of sharing, the first time I went to Singapore, the very first time I ate in the food court, I did not know the difference between the halal trays, and the non-halal trays, and obviously, there's nothing wrong with that, it's just that they got a bit, like, mad, because I didn't follow the rules as usual, but then, at the end of the day, I was a bit sad with it, but then I was like, hey, it's normal, I shouldn't be, like, taking it personally, because I'm still adapting to the culture. My biggest tip is, like, when you actually face the culture of Singapore, and you actually go out there and experience it, if you make something, if you do a mistake, then it's fine, you just have to learn from it, you're a foreigner, it's the first time being here. On the other hand, when it comes to exploring culture, my biggest tip is to research, you can go to Reddit, because everyone here uses Reddit, you can even go to TikTok, I mean, in Singapore specifically, they also use Lemon8, and they have, like, specific places and recommendations for you to really immerse yourself into the culture of Singapore, and not go to just the touristy spots. So, yeah, those are my two tips. Awesome. Olivia, thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your insights, I'm sure the next batch will find them super helpful. Hopefully. Thank you so much, Joe, for having me. Absolutely. And for everyone watching, listening to today's episode, hopefully you found this episode useful, feel free to share it with your friends, and we will see you on the next episode of ESSEC Diaries.